Letter: Force politicians to live within their means

Friday

Feb 28, 2014 at 8:00 AM

"Illinois does not have enough incoming revenue to cover expenses." (My View, Feb. 23) So what else is new? Profligate spending and political corruption have made this state a laughingstock and fiscal basket case and no amount of new revenue will change that.

Special to the Rockford Register Star

"Illinois does not have enough incoming revenue to cover expenses." (My View, Feb. 23) So what else is new? Profligate spending and political corruption have made this state a laughingstock and fiscal basket case and no amount of new revenue will change that.

The 67 percent "temporary" tax hike was supposed to fund pensions and pay down debt. It has done neither, but Carl Benassi proposes that even higher taxes just might be the answer. He cites the usual litany of socialist appeals to class warfare, attacks on "greed,” and Warren Buffett's wish to pay higher taxes. Unfortunately, socialism failed and Warren Buffett retained a stable of tax attorneys and accountants to fight the IRS for years over almost a billion dollars in disputed taxes. Was it "greed" that compelled Mr. Buffett to want to keep his money while spouting populist nonsense, or expedient hypocrisy?

I read Mr. Benassi's column carefully, but found no apparent willingness to cut the fat union pensions of retired teachers to help the Illinois financial crisis. Greed, or simply more liberal, "Don't tax me, don't tax thee. Tax those millionaires and billionaires behind that tree."?

Given the political cesspool in Springfield and Washington, D.C., it is foolish in the extreme to give these wastrels more money. Give them a dollar and they will spend $1.40. Starve the beast. Force the politicians to live within their means or go belly up like the rest of us.